The governor of Sudan’s White Nile state, Abdul Hamid Musa Kasha, has blamed South Sudan’s army (SPLA) for the closure of the border between Sudan and South Sudan.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, Kasha said the decision by Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir to close the border and treat South Sudanese as foreigners was because the SPLA did not commit to the directives of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir to withdraw troops five kilometers from the shared border.
Kasha accused South Sudanese of maintaining positions inside Sudanese territory.
“Before the closure of the border they were treated as Sudanese nationals, but after the president directed the opening of the border from their side they did not implement it and now they are inside our borders,” he said. “We cannot do anything to them except treat them as foreigners unless there is a change.”
Kasha reiterated his government’s decision to treat South Sudanese who fled the country during the war as foreigners.
“We are sorry to treat South Sudanese as foreigners, but we had to because there is no commitment by the SPLA to the directives of president of South Sudan,” said Kasha.